Bulldogs Hold Steady in Second at Terrier Invitational

Nov 21, 2009

Dominski, Forrester, Kim Win Events

BOSTON, Mass. - After failing to win any events
on day one of the Terrier Invitational, the Bulldogs came storming
back Friday to win three of the five individual events.
Unfortunately, losses in both relays and a lack of depth kept the
Bulldogs from catching Boston University. Boston currently
sits in first place with a score of 585.5, while the Bulldogs are
in second with 520 points.

The difference between BU and Yale was depth. BU only
placed first in one more event than Yale, but BU often had five
swimmers scoring in events where Yale would only have two or
three. Three times BU had four or more swimmers score points
in a single event, whereas the Bulldogs never had more than three.

Morning Session (Preliminaries)

In the morning preliminaries, the Bulldogs opened by getting two
swimmers in the A final of the 400-yard IM. Junior Susan Kim
and sophomore Abigail Nunn finished in second and fourth,
respectively with less than a second separating them. Kim
touched the wall in 4:30.02 and Nunn came in just behind her at
4:30.99. The only Bulldog that made it through to the night
session was sophomore Athena Liao in the B final.

In the 100-yard butterfly, freshman Alex Forrester dominated the
prelim, taking first with a time of 53.85. Junior Ileana
Lucos and freshman Monica Tung both earned spots in the A final as
well with times of 57.98 and 57.03, respectively.

Yale came up big in the 200-yard freestyle prelims, taking the
top two spots and fourth place. Freshman Joan Weaver took
first with a time of 1:52.60 and was followed closely by fellow
freshman Molly Albrecht who clocked in at 1:52.87. Freshman
Cynthia Tsay took fourth with a time of 1:53.50.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, Kim showed why she was the Ivy
League Champion, last year. She took first in the prelims by
over a second with a time of 1:03.39. She was the only
Bulldog to make it through to the A final, but Liao earned a spot
in the B final.

Two Bulldogs made it through to the A final in the 100-yard
backstroke. Dominski and Albrecht finished in third and
fourth place, respectively. Dominski had a time of 57.88,
just .53 seconds behind first place and Albrecht finished in 57.97.

Night Session (Finals)

The Bulldogs opened the night session with the 200-yard medley
relay. Yale's A team took second, barely losing to BU.
BU finished with a time of 1:43.83 with Yale right behind them at
1:44.31. Yale's B team came in 10th with a time of
1:51.03.

In the 400-yard IM, Kim and Nunn held on to their places from
the morning. Each swimmer managed to shave time off their
prelim time, but the biggest drop came from BU's Amanda Schmitz,
who dropped over six seconds off her morning time to win the race
with a time of 4:26.52. Kim finished in second with a time of
4:30.02 and Nunn came in fourth with a time of 4:30.99. Liao
made a big move in the night session, jumping from 15th
in the prelims to ninth in the finals with a time of 4:33.86,
almost five seconds faster than her prelim time.

The Bulldogs claimed their first individual victory of the meet
in the 100-yard butterfly. Forrester, who took first in the
morning prelims, held on to her place in the finals with a time of
53.59. Tung and Lucos also swam in the A final and took fifth
and sixth, respectively. Tung finished with a time of 57.34
and Lucos with a time of 57.64.

After going one-two in the preliminaries for the 200-yard
freestyle, Weaver and Albrecht could not hold of Lauren Drake of BU
who dropped 1.71 seconds off her prelim time to take first
place. Weaver came in second with a time of 1:52.45 and
Albrecht in third with a time of 1:52.72. Tsay who took
fourth in the morning dropped three spots seventh and finished with
a time of 1:55.04.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, Kim maintained her morning lead
and dropped .35 seconds off her time. She took first with a
time of 1:03.04. Kim was the only Bulldog in the Yale final,
but Liao took first in the B final for ninth place overall.
Her time was 1:06.28.

The Bulldogs third first-place finish of the invitational came
in the 100-yard backstroke, where Dominski came up with a narrow
victory over Amy Perrault of UNH and Emily Munday of BU.
Dominski's time of 56.27 was just .08 seconds and .24 seconds
faster than second and third place, respectively. Albrecht
also swam in the A final and took sixth place with a time of 57.90.

The final event of the night was the grueling 800-yard freestyle
Relay. In a longer race you expect to see more space
separating the times than in a 50-yard race, but just .21 seconds
separated Yale and BU. BU was able to edge out Yale for first
with a time of 7:31.87. The Bulldogs came in at
7:32.08. Yale's B team took seventh with a time of 7:46.30.